Eddie Meduza

Eddie Meduza (real name Errol Leonard Norstedt) (June 17, 1948–January 16, 2002) was a Swedish composer and musician working mainly in the rockabilly genre. Many of his songs were about alcohol, women, and cars, quite often with obscene lyrics. Sometimes they were also politically oriented, many aimed at the Swedish social democrats. He was also a popular performer of Raggare music. Norstedt's other identity was the far more vulgar E. Hitler. In this guise he generally recorded more sexually explicit material. He is remembered now mostly for his more explicit work, but many of his songs are very ironic and some contain clever, albeit unpolished, social commentary. Norstedt also recorded serious rockabilly songs with a distinct 1950s flavour in his own studio, called Studio Ronka (ronka referring to runka, which is Swedish slang for masturbation). He played most of the instruments himself. He often got bad reviews from the press, notably Expressen journalist Mats Olsson, to which Norstedt replied by writing even more offensive songs, such as Kuken står på Mats Olsson (Mats Olsson's got a hard-on). He reportedly said that no matter what he did it was never good enough for the critics. Despite this he was considered an accomplished musician and songwriter, in particular by Swedish record company executive Bert Karlsson who, with mixed results, tried to foster that talent in Norstedt. He never had a major breakthrough and this is commonly attributed to his increasingly obscene songwriting. According to himself, he developed alcoholism in the late 1970s during periods of intensive touring. After collapsing on his way to a show he changed his lifestyle completely. He sobered up and started working out. However, despite his efforts the years of alcohol abuse eventually took their toll and he passed away in his home. He was survived by his wife and children.